Coming Home: This Pilot’s Life Will Never be the Same

Zen Pilot Version 2.0

The arrival back to San Diego was a surreal experience for this pilot. No longer would I be hearing the constant drone of the high frequency radio just inches behind my head that sounded like someone was calling me from the afterlife. I wouldn’t be smelling the Avgas fumes that had vented overnight from ferry tanks 5 and 6, wiping the Aeroshell 15w50 off my hand that spilled during my emergency landing into Kuala Lumpur International Airport or trying to move around the cockpit in my neoprene immersion suit that made me look like a big red Gumby toy.

Instead, I am doing my daily walk through Balboa Park and I feel as if I am dreaming like I had so many times on my trip. I am again experiencing the beauty, peace and tranquility of the park while adjusting back to my life at home. I am finding truth in Deepak Choprah’s quote that sometimes the dream is more real than our reality. Certainly things are familiar, but not as I expected. I am reminded of my experience while in Indonesia when I visited my elementary school, childhood home, and the pool/club were I had played 40 years before. I had spent 2 ½ years in these places as I child but I was shocked at how differently things looked to me as an adult.

I suddenly realized that I had changed and am now seeing the world through a different set of eyes. Life can never be the same if we are growing and evolving. As a citizen of the world my boundaries between countries have been removed as I experienced first hand that all of us wish for joy, happiness, health, freedom, love, peace of mind and to fulfill our most impossibly big dreams no matter where we are from. I am experiencing a new reality.

Part of this was driven by the deep sense of gratitude that I feel because I made it safely around the world on my trip after several very close calls. There were times when I doubted myself and my aircraft, and moments of being unsure what the next millisecond held for me. Sometimes I felt that I didn’t want to fly or was experienced a great deal of uncertainty, which would wake me up in the middle of the night as I was shaken by what had happened on earlier parts of the trip. The voices of self doubt had their audience to sternly express their most unsettling thoughts. My faith was put to the test.

Somehow I persevered. It would have been so easy for the story to end at any point along the way, but that did not happen. I was spared for a purpose bigger than what I knew. My faith was tested ‘off the scale’ at this point. It took enormous trust to get back into an aircraft after some of these events. I ceased to pray for safety, but instead that whatever was intended for my highest learning to happen. This was “surrender’ in its purest form. It scared me deeply, but I also knew this was the biggest learning lesson of my life that was unfolding.

For the last 95 days I had been focused on what was happening in the moment. It was required to stay safe. My range of view was only as far as the leg I was attempting to complete. I was spending very little time thinking about what happened yesterday or what the schedule was for the following day. I was reading gauges, looking out for other aircraft, talking to air traffic controllers, checking and rechecking my course, studying charts, adjusting engine performance, ensuring my emergency devices were ready as well as keeping an eye on the weather. Flying had forced me to remain focused on the present moment to stay safe.

It seemed that even though the flying portion of this trip was complete, I was still processing and downloading what I was intended to learn. My sense was this would continue for a long time to come. It’s been said that life hands us lessons only as fast as we are ready to learn them. Certainly the lessons don’t stop when we embark on our journey. If anything, they come in divine order to help heal our hurt and remain open to love.

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God Bless you my new found friend. I am so gratified knowing that you made it safely back to San Diego. What a fantastic experience and life story you will have to encourage others to take that next unseen step forward purely by faith.

You are an amazing leader, I am certain others will want to follow in your footsteps.

It was so interesting to follow you on your flight around our small world. Meeting you in CYYT made it more personal than I realized it would. Checking each day to read about the latest post to the web became something that I looked forward to. I’m sure you have inspired many along the journey. All the best in your next adventure whatever that may be. It’s great to know you made home safely.